Biomass Feasibility Project Final Report - Xcel Energy

Overall Structure
Fuel Delivery Path
It is necessary to develop a full-cost approximation for the delivery of a fully-usable fuel to the
power generation facility. This delivery path may take many forms and vary significantly across
feedstocks and projects. The user is free to select which options will be included in the normal
operation of the proposed project.
Feedstock
Site
Processing
Yard
(optional)
Storage
Facility
(optional)
Power
Plant
Figure VIII-2: Feedstock Delivery Path
The most complicated delivery path will include stops at all available stages. If storage will not
take place at a dedicated storage facility, but will instead take place at the Feedstock Site,
Processing Yard or Power Plant, the transport distances under the “Storage” menu should be set
to zero. Similarly, if there is not a separate Processing Yard in the delivery path, the distances
under “Ship to Processing Yard” should be set to zero.
Transportation Costs
The user may define up to three different methods of transportation (road, rail, and barge) and
the associated distances of each for each link in the feedstock delivery chain. The user may
therefore set a delivery path for biomass fuels that includes transporting the feedstock X miles by
truck, Y miles by train, and Z miles by barge.
A single default cost value is provided for each mode of transportation and each feedstock. If
the user anticipates that transportation costs will be different for each link in the feedstock
delivery chain, he or she may define different values for each link. This can be done by entering
a new cost per ton/mile under the “Processing Yard”, “Storage” and/or “Power Plant” screens
and then clicking on the “Save Settings” button. This will assign the new transportation costs to
the relevant link in the supply chain. The user may also enter transportation costs in the “Inputs”
worksheet accessed through the “View All Inputs” link on the “Feedstock Selection” screen.
Different transportation assumptions may be made depending upon the consistency of the fuel.
The user may define the feedstock as a solid or liquid. This distinction was made assuming that
transportation of a liquid would require significantly different equipment for loading and
unloading needs.
The cost impact of omitting a stage of the delivery path can be observed by use of the dropdown
“Yes” and “No” menus for the Processing Yard and Storage Facility. If the value is set to
“No,” the stage will be ignored in calculating the delivered cost per MMBTU. It should be noted,
however, that all costs associated with the stage will be ignored; if the feedstock must be
processed before being used, these costs will need to be added to a different stage in order to
preserve the accuracy of the calculation.
Identifying Effective Biomass Strategies: Page 123
Quantifying Minnesota’s Resources and Evaluating Future Opportunities